A movie about iconic poet Dylan Thomas, which stars a Holyhead-born actor and music by a top Welsh rocker, is to be released in the United States.

Set Fire to the Stars tells the story of a week in the life of hell-raising Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as he embarked on a disastrous tour of American universities in the 1950s.

By his side is young poetry professor and admirer John Malcolm Brinnin, whose philosophy for looking after the firebrand is “I’ll improvise”, but a fragile friendship is stretched beyond the limit.

Holyhead-born Celyn Jones stars as Thomas and he also co-wrote the script while Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys of Bethesda provides the original soundtrack. Brinnin is played by Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood.

Released last November to favourable reviews Celyn has been touring cinemas and theatres in North Wales showing the movie and staging question and answer sessions.

Now Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to the movie which was made by Mad as Birds company.

Andy Goddard, who directed the movie, said: “Mad as Birds Films and I are very excited about this acquisition. In some way, this movie is a love letter to America, so I guess you could say Strand Releasing is bringing it home.”

Production of the movie started in late 2013 and the crew spent 18 days filming scenes on location in Swansea which deputised for New York City.

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Celyn said: “Dylan Thomas has been a lifetime passion.

“To make this story into a film is a dream, as there was first a chance to do it as a play Off-Broadway ten years ago, when every night in a bar someone would say ‘when are you going to play Dylan Thomas with your round face and curly hair?’.”

No play ensued but in 2013 and Celyn and director Andy Goddard were halfway through writing the script when Andy said he would love Elijah Wood to play Brinnin.

“We finished the script with Elijah in mind and we worked out a link to lead to his agency in America.

“What attracted Elijah was that it was going to be shot in black and white, as we sort of think Dylan Thomas only exists in black and white, from all the photographs, and to make it authentic to the time, you think in black and white to create the world of New York,” said Celyn.

Wood fitted in immediately. “Within five minutes of arriving, you get past Lord Of The Rings; he rocked up with his records and he turned up on his own.

“We wouldn’t have got it filmed in 18 days if he’d been a Hollywood diva, but he was just a normal guy,” producer Andy Evans added.